Latest From California Healthline:

The nation’s second-largest insurer is shrinking its presence on Obamacare exchanges and in the broader individual market in response to prevailing uncertainty. California is just the latest — and the biggest — example. (Pauline Bartolone and Anna Gorman and Chad Terhune,
8/2)

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Summaries Of The News:

“My wife and I came up with a new Covered California slogan,” quipped Santa Cruz County resident Chris Olsen. “Covered California: Nothing you can count on.” Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she doesn't understand the decision and is "deeply concerned" by it.

San Jose Mercury News:
Bay Area Residents Worry About Anthem Blue Cross Exit
Anthem, which this year attracted 19 percent of the exchange’s 1.4 million enrollees, will only offer 2018 plans in Santa Clara County, five counties in the Central Valley, and 22 Northern California counties.​ Anthem’s decision to withdraw its health plans in California affects only the individual insurance market — both on and off the health-insurance exchange. (Seipel, 8/2)

KQED:
Feinstein “Deeply Concerned” With Anthem Rollback Of Coverage
California Senator Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday that she was “deeply concerned” by Anthem Blue Cross’s decision to reduce individual health plan coverage for some 150,000 Californians. ...In an email to KQED, Anthem Blue Cross representatives said the shrinking individual market and changes in federal guidance were the reasons behind its decision to cover fewer Californians this year. (Klivans, 8/2)

East Bay Times:
Here's What You Need To Know As Covered California Rates Go Up In 2018
Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, described 3 percent of premium increases as an “uncertainty surcharge,” fueled by the unclear future of the Affordable Care Act. Uncertainty about the law also will prompt a big private insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, to stop selling Covered California plans in parts of California. “While we have done a lot in California to give plans some certainty, they’re still nervous,” Lee said of insurers. (Perkes, 8/2)

KPBS:
Covered California Policyholders Have Some Decisions To Make
Price hikes and a large insurer pulling out of the market — it looks like it will be another rough and tumble year for the state's health insurance exchange. Anthem Blue Cross said it will no longer sell policies through Covered California for people in San Diego County and 15 other regions in the state. (Goldberg, 8/3)

The Wall Street Journal:
Molina Healthcare Will Leave Health Exchanges In Utah, Wisconsin
Molina said it will leave the insurance exchanges in Utah and Wisconsin and scale back its presence in Washington state, and may pull out of more state marketplaces. It also said it is increasing exchange premiums 55% on average, partly due to lack of clarity around key federal payments. Molina is one of the largest marketplace insurers currently, with 949,000 enrollees across nine states. “We’re prepared to make hard decisions” about exchange participation, said Joseph White, chief financial officer and interim CEO, during a call with analysts. (Wilde Mathews, 8/2)

Bloomberg:
Molina To Cut Costs, Eliminate 1,500 Jobs Following Big Loss
The company said it’s eliminating about 1,500 jobs as part of a restructuring plan that it hopes will save $300 million to $400 million by late next year. In the meantime, Molina withdrew its 2017 earnings outlook. The company also said that it will exit money-losing Affordable Care Act markets in Utah and Wisconsin for next year and increase rates sharply elsewhere. (Tracer, 8/2)

CQ Roll Call:
Molina Exits Two Insurance Markets Amid Subsidy Uncertainty
Molina’s second-quarter financial results appear to show a company facing significant challenges, even with its premium revenue rising to $4.74 billion in the second quarter of this year, compared with $4.03 billion in the year-earlier one. But the company reported a net loss of $4.10 per diluted share in the second quarter, compared with income of 58 cents per share in the same period last year. Molina retracted its full-year financial guidance for 2017, citing uncertainty about federal health policy, a company-wide restructuring plan and uncertain plan performance in a number of states. And, the insurer is laying off 10 percent of its employees as part of the restructuring. The company earlier this year underwent a leadership shake-up when CEO J. Mario Molina and his brother, Chief Financial Officer John C. Molina, were unexpectedly ousted. (Clason, 8/2)

In a ruling that states can sue the administration if insurer subsidies are cut off, the courts may have taken away a powerful negotiating tool President Donald Trump has been using during the health care debates. “We’re not going to wait to find out what Donald Trump wants to do,” says California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is helping steer the states’ involvement. “My team is ready to defend these subsidies in court.”

The Associated Press:
Court Complicates Trump’s Threat To Cut ‘Obamacare’ Funds
President Donald Trump’s bold threat to push “Obamacare” into collapse may get harder to carry out after a new court ruling. The procedural decision late Tuesday by a federal appeals panel in Washington has implications for millions of consumers. The judges said that a group of states can defend the legality of government “cost-sharing” subsidies for copays and deductibles under the Affordable Care Act if the Trump administration decides to stop paying the money. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 8/2)

Sacramento Bee:
California, 16 Other States Say They’ll Defend Obamacare Subsidies
Now that California, 16 other states and the District of Columbia have been given legal standing in a critical court appeal, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Wednesday they will fight to preserve the federal funds that underpin their Obamacare health exchanges if the Trump administration bows out of the lawsuit. ...In this legal case, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives filed suit in 2014 against then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, asserting that she had overstepped her authority by appropriating billions of dollars to cover discounts that insurers were mandated to give low-income consumers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. (Anderson, 8/2)

Senate HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander and ranking Democrat Patty Murray have a history of shepherding through seemingly impossible bipartisan bills, but the odds are against them when it comes to the first attempt at fixing the Affordable Care Act since repeal efforts failed.

Politico:
New Bipartisan Obamacare Push Faces Steep Climb
There’s never been a major bipartisan Obamacare bill, and the path to passing one now — after the death of Senate Republicans' repeal effort — is steep. Senate HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking Democrat Patty Murray of Washington are up against both time and history in their race to stabilize the shaky Obamacare markets and solidify their status as the chamber’s top dealmakers. (Haberkorn and Cancryn, 8/3)

Reuters:
U.S. Governors Urge Trump To Make Insurance Payments
Democratic and Republican U.S. governors on Wednesday urged the Trump administration, as well as Congress, to continue funding payments to health insurance companies that make Obamacare plans affordable, calling it critical to stabilizing the insurance marketplace. (Cornwell, 8/2)

The Wall Street Journal:
Health Insurer Payments In Crosshairs
The health industry is heading into a pivotal few weeks that will determine whether the White House keeps making billions in payments to insurers or whether Congress will take over responsibility for them—decisions that rest on complex political calculations. President Donald Trump regularly decries the “cost-sharing reduction” payments as insurer bailouts, but he has so far kept making them. Republicans in Congress sued President Barack Obama to end them, but many now hope Mr. Trump will continue them. And congressional Democrats, who openly favor the payments, failed to lock them in when they could. (Radnofsky and Hackman, 8/2)

The New York Times:
The Passion Of A Congressional Health Care Battle
One of the remarkable features of covering the congressional battle over health care this year has been the way reporters pieced together a picture of what was happening from snippets of information extracted from members of Congress dashing through the Capitol. At times, I felt as if I were in a time machine — reliving, in reverse, my previous reporting for The New York Times on the laborious legislative process that produced the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010. Reporters roamed the halls like hunters and sprang into action with voice recorders in hand when a senator emerged from the Senate chamber, an elevator or a subway car, or an unmarked hideaway office. (Pear, 8/2)

An ad has been launched to target candidates Bryan Caforio in the 25th District and Josh Harder in the 10th District. Meanwhile, the issue was the impetus for a lot of political spending in California this year.

Sacramento Bee:
Universal Healthcare Bill Attracted Lots Of Lobbying
From rehab centers to burger joints, more than 100 businesses, unions, trade groups and other entities weighed in on California’s universal healthcare legislation during the first half of 2017, according to new state lobbying disclosures. The filings, covering spending on lobbyists through June 30, underscore how Senate Bill 562 had the attention of special interests based in more than a dozen states as the measure advanced through the state Senate. (Miller, 8/2)

Legislative efforts to count and clear the rape kit backlog have failed over the years in California, with the powerful law enforcement lobby citing the burden on local police budgets and labor.

KQED:
Despite Backlog Of Rape Kits, California’s Not Requiring They Be Tested Or Tallied
Victims’ rights groups estimate that hundreds of thousands of rape kits remain untested at police departments and crime lab storage facilities nationwide—thus far a partial inventory of California by the End the Backlog Initiative has identified some 9,000 untested kits. But the precise number remains a mystery because most states, including California, don’t inventory rape kits, and rape survivors sometimes struggle to get information about their own cases. (Young, 8/3)

“I think what is important to note is that the pro-life elements were not the cause of failure for the bill," said Mallory Quigley, spokeswoman for the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List. “This was an area of unity for Republicans. So I do think that there are going to be more wins in the future."

Without a valid health exemption, the kids won't be allowed to attend school without being vaccinated.

The Mercury News:
County To Parents: Get Children Vaccinated Before School
San Mateo County Health officials have issued a reminder to parents to make sure that their children’s vaccines are current before the first day of school or child care. California law requires that students receive certain vaccines or they won’t be permitted to attend school or child care, unless they have a valid exemption, said Diana Rohini LaVigne, public information officer for the San Mateo County Health System. (Orr, 8/2)

San Jose Mercury News:
Teen Wellness Conference To 'Harness Positive Peer Influence'
Under the direction of Bay Area teens, mental health and wellbeing advocates from Palo Alto, Stanford University and elsewhere are working together to plan the first-ever Teen Wellness Conference. The free conference for teens ages 13 to 19 in September is unique in that it is being organized mainly under the direction of teenagers. (Lee, 8/3)

For the first time, scientists have edited genes in embryos to fix a disease-causing mutation. The milestone raises hopes for being able to correct serious problems, but also raises tricky ethical questions about modifying human DNA for the purpose of obtaining desired traits for a child.

The San Diego Union-Tribune:
County Seeks Feeback On Mental Health Services
San Diego County is trying to get feedback from people who have participated in its behavioral health programs. This month the County Health and Human Services agency is holding events in person and through a teleconference to get input on its mental health services, the county said in a news release. (Stewart, 8/2)

Los Angeles Times:
Defibrillator Breathes New Life Into Safety Training, ER Response
Last week, officials with the Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge installed a device they hope they never have to use — an automated external defibrillator (AED), used in cases of cardiac arrest to assist CPR and help hearts find lost rhythms. The cabinet containing the unit is located next to the center’s office counter, high up on a wall where curious, young hands cannot likely reach. A blinking green light shows the battery is functioning, and an alarm sounds whenever the cabinet door is opened. (Cardine, 8/2)